The Island of Gold Part 33

It was hard times now with all. Watch and watch is bad enough in temperate zones, but here, with the temperature far below freezing-point, and dropping lower and lower every hour, with darkness and storm coming down upon them, and the dangers of the ice to be encountered, it was doubly, trebly hard.

It takes a deal to damp the courage of a true British sailor, however, and strange as it may seem, that very courage seems to rise to the occasion, be that occasion what it may. But now, to quote the wondrous words of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner--"

... "The storm-blast came, and he Was tyrannous and strong; He struck with his o'ertaking wings, And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow.

As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, And forward bends his head.

The s.h.i.+p drove fast, loud roared the blast, And southward ay we fled.

"And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold; And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald.

"And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: * * * * *.

"The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!"

Yes, the good barque _Sea Flower_ was driven far, far to the southward, far, far from her course; but happily, before they reached the icy barrier, the wind had gone down, so that the terrible noises in the main pack which the poet so graphically describes had few terrors for them.

The wind fell, and went veering round, till it blew fair from the east.

A very gentle wind, however, and hardly did the barque make five knots an hour on her backward track.

Others might be impatient, but there was no such thing as impatience about Nelda, and little about Ransey Tansey either. Everything they saw or pa.s.sed was as fresh and new to them as if they were sailing through a sea of enchantment.

The cold affected neither. They were dressed to withstand it. The keen, frosty air was bracing rather than otherwise, and warm blood circulated more quickly through every vein as they trod the decks together. How strange, how weird-like at times were the snow-clad icebergs they often saw, their sides glittering and gleaming in the suns.h.i.+ne with every colour of the rainbow, and how black was the sea that lay between!

The smaller pieces through which the s.h.i.+p had often to steer were of every shape and size, all white, and some of them acting as rafts for seals asleep thereon--seals that were drifting, drifting away they knew not, cared not whither.

Sometimes a great sea-elephant would raise his n.o.ble head and gaze curiously at the pa.s.sing barque, then dive and be seen no more. Shoals of whales of a small species afforded our little seafarers great delight to watch. But these went slowly on their way, dipping and ploughing, and looking neither to the right hand nor to the left. The porpoises were still more interesting, for they seemed to live but to romp and play and chase each other, sometimes jumping right out of the water, so that it is no wonder Nelda imagined they were playing at leap-frog.

Nelda, when told that these were schools of porpoises, said,--

"Oh, well, and school is just let out, I suppose; no wonder they are happy. And the big whales are their mothers! They are not happy because they are all going to church, quiet and 'spectable like."

The myriads of birds seen everywhere it would be impossible here to describe. Suffice it to say that they afforded Nelda great delight.

Bob was as merry as ever; but when one day the 'Ral walked solemnly aft wearing a pair of canvas stockings right up as far as his thighs, both Tandy and Halcott joined with the youngsters in a roar of hearty laughter. There was no more dance in that droll bird, and wouldn't be for many a long day. "A sail in sight, sah! A steamer, sah!" It was little Fritz who reported it from the mast-head one morning, some time after the _Sea Flower_ had regained her course, had doubled the Cape, and was steering north-west by west.

The stranger lay to on observing a flag of distress hoisted, and soon a boat was seen coming rapidly on towards the _Sea Flower_.

The steamer was the _Dun Avon_, homeward-bound from San Francisco, with pa.s.sengers and cargo.

The captain himself boarded her with one of his men, and to him was related the whole sad story as we know it. "We have a clean bill of health now though," added Halcott; "but we are short-handed--one man in irons, and five more that we cannot trust."

"Well," said the steamer captain, "I cannot relieve you of your black hats, but I'll tell you what I can do: I shall let you have four good hands if they'll volunteer, and if you'll pay them well. And I should advise you to set your mutineers on sh.o.r.e at the entrance to the Strait of Magellan, and let them take their chance. You're not compelled to voyage with mutineers, and risk the safety of yourselves and your s.h.i.+p.

Now write your letters home, for my time is rather short."

The four new hands were four hearties, as hard as a mainstay, as brown as bricks, and with merry faces that did one's heart good to behold.

Was it marooning, I wonder? Well, it doesn't matter a great deal, but just ten days after this the mutineers were landed, bag and baggage, on the north cape of Desolation Island, not far from the route through the far-famed strait. With them were left provisions for six weeks, guns, ammunition, and tools.

I never heard what became of them. If they were picked up by some pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p, it was more than they deserved.

"At last," said Halcott, when the boat returned--"at last, friend Tandy, an incubus is lifted off my mind, and now let us make--

"All Sail for the Island of Gold."

End of Book Two.

Book 3--CHAPTER ONE.

"A SIGHT I SHALL REMEMBER TILL MY DYING DAY."

Captain Halcott sat on the skylight, and near him sat Tandy his mate, while between them--tacked down with pins to the painted canvas, so that the wind might not catch it--lay a chart of a portion of the South Pacific Ocean.

At one particular spot was a blue cross.

"I marked it myself," said Halcott; "and here, on this piece of cardboard, is the island, which I've shown you before--every creek and bay, every river and hill, so far as I know them, distinctly depicted."

"The exact longitude and lat.i.tude?" said Tandy.

"As near as I could make them, my friend."

"And yet we don't seem to be able to discover this island. Strange things happen in these seas, Halcott; islands s.h.i.+ft and islands sink, but one so large as this could do neither. Come, Halcott, we'll work out the reckoning again. It will be twelve o'clock in ten minutes."

"Everything correct," said Halcott, when they had finished, "as written down by me. Here we are on the very spot where the Island of Misfortune should be, and--the island is gone!"

There was a gentle breeze blowing, and the sky was clear, save here and there a few fleecy clouds lying low on a hazy horizon.

Nothing in sight! nor had there been for days and days; for the isle they were in search of lies far out of the track of outward or homeward-bound s.h.i.+ps.

"Below there!"

It was a shout from one of the new hands, who was stationed at the fore-topgallant cross-trees.

"Hallo, Wilson!" cried Tandy running forward. "Here we are!"

"Something I can't make out on the lee bow, sir."

"Well, shall I come up and bring a bigger gla.s.s?"

"One minute, sir!"

"It's a steamer, I believe," he hailed now; "but I can't just raise her hull, only just the long trail of smoke along the horizon."

Tandy was beside the man in a few minutes' time. "This will raise it,"